10 things you might not know about sweat

It's finally been warm around here. So let's soak up these facts about sweat:

1 Human sweat is odorless. The eccrine and apocrine glands' emissions do, however, provide the perfect home for bacteria to grow and thrive — and that's where the smell comes from.

2 Antiperspirants work because the active ingredient (usually aluminum) forms a plug in the sweat duct. So it's most useful if applied before going to bed and when the armpit is completely dry. And it becomes even more effective if applied twice daily for a week or more.

3 If you were standing under hot lights and millions of people were watching, would you sweat? Of course. But ever since Richard Nixon got shiny during his debate with John F. Kennedy in 1960, perspiration has been viewed as a sign of candidate weakness. In 2012, Mitt Romney was ridiculed for sweating during a debate. Comedian Albert Brooks, recalling his own "flop sweat" scene in the 1987 film "Broadcast News," tweeted: "If Romney sweats anymore I get a royalty." Another tweeter, Lisa McIntire, countered: "Guys, Romney didn't have flop sweat. He had victory shine."

4 Wrestlers in ancient Greece competed in the nude, covered in oil, and did not wash with soap afterward. Instead, they cleaned with a strigil, a squeegeelike instrument used to scrape off the oil, dirt and sweat.

5 It's often recalled that Winston Churchill used the phrase "blood, sweat and tears" in his famous speech to the House of Commons in May 1940. But what he actually said was "blood, toil, tears and sweat." Churchill had previously written "blood, sweat and tears" in an article about the Spanish Civil War, and even that was not original, according to quotation expert Ralph Keyes. More than three centuries earlier, poet John Donne had penned "thy teares, or sweat, or blood." And in the 1880s, playwright John Davidson wrote of "blood-sweats and tears."

6 Even without exercising, the human body loses about 2.5 liters of water each day, more than half of that from urination. But get that body moving, and it can sweat more than 2 liters per hour and as much as 12 liters per day.

7 Romanian gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi believed rigorous training and a diet that included raw garlic would produce Olympic champions. His athletes knew it produced something else: stinky sweat. "We hated garlic because when we worked out and sweat, we smelled like hell," recalled Karolyi protege Nadia Comaneci, who earned a perfect 10 at the 1976 Olympic Games. She recalled that other coaches copied Karolyi's dietary regimen. "I remember saying to myself, 'It's not the garlic, people, it's the training!'"

8 James Brown, a founding father of funk, knew how to work up a sweat, and even had a hit song called "Cold Sweat." A Brown biographer, James Sullivan, cites Yale professor Robert Farris Thompson's theory that African-American use of the word "funky" comes from the Ki-Kongo word lu-fuki, which refers to body odor in a positive way — as the smell of someone who has worked up a sweat through hard work.

9 The next breakthrough in skin care may come from magic hippo sweat. Researchers say its pinkish-red excretion not only helps regulate heat but also acts as a sun block, antiseptic and insect repellent.

10 The Miami Heat's LeBron James, known for the signature sweatband on his head, tossed off the headband near the end of Game 6 of the NBA Finals last month. That inspired a Twitter account called @Lebronzheadband to tweet: "Lebron im on the sideline next to the bald camera guy help he wont stop looking at me."

Mark Jacob is a deputy metro editor at the Tribune; Stephan Benzkofer is the newspaper's weekend editor.

Sources: "Lifestyle Medicine," 2nd edition, edited by James M. Rippe; "Preventive Dermatology" edited by Robert A. Norman; "Fitness and Health" by Brian J. Sharkey, Steven E. Gaskill; "Disgusting Things: A Miscellany" by Don Voorhees; "Letters to a Young Gymnast" by Nadia Comaneci; "The Quote Verifier" by Ralph Keyes; "Greek Athletics and the Genesis of Sport" by David Sansone; "The Hardest Working Man: How James Brown Saved the Soul of America" by James Sullivan; "Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy" by Robert Farris Thompson; NBC News; twitter.com; yahoo.com; miamiherald.com.